The LowLine: How Do the Remote Skylights Work?

At this point you're probably familiar with Dan Barasch and James Ramsey's ambitious Kickstarter campaign, the LowLine. Dare I go so far as to say it's the most ambitious Kickstarter project ever, especially now that they've doubled down, asking backers to help them raise $300,000 instead of the original $100,000? The extra funds will allow them to do more than just build and present the technology needed to sustain an underground park, it will enable them to start work on the park itself, which means that by next Winter there just might be a warm, sunny underground park to retreat to.

There are only a few days left to raise the extra money. The good news is that even if they don't met their new goal, the Remote Skylight, the system they developed to filter sunlight underground, will still get made. The process is a bit complicated, but Dan and James simplify it..

Remote Skylight uses a system of optics to gather sunlight, concentrate it and reflect it below ground where it's dispersed by a solar distributor dish embedded in the ceiling. Even underground, the light will carry the necessary wavelengths to support photosynthesis for growing plants, trees and grasses underground. And because the cables block the harmful UV rays that cause sunburn, you can leave the SPF-45 at home.

I wanted to know what these Remote Skylights will look like and James was kind enough to oblige with a few images. As you can see, it catches sunlight with a device that looks like a satellite dish, channelling the rays down through the main hub and out through another dish below that projects it to the underground park. Obviously, it's a lot more complicated than that, especially when you consider how many Remote Skylights they're going to have to build to light up 1.5 acres of dank, old underground space.

When Perrin isn't scouting the best new design talent for Core77, or working as the Products Editor of The Architect's Newspaper, or writing for Cool Hunting, Design Applause, Print Magazine, Frieze and The Paris Review, she's trying to put her MFA in Fiction from Vermont College to good use.

Has everyone forgotten Jurassic Park? Jeff Goldbloom? Everyone is thinking about whether or not they could, but did anyone ever stop to think about whether they should?
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